Iftikhar Chaudhry

Chief Justice

By Imran KhanWednesday, Apr. 18, 2012

Luke Wilson for TIME

Iftikhar Chaudhry has become the first head of Pakistan's Supreme Court to attempt to bring the powerful to justice. He has taken on the Prime Minister and the President in an effort to hold them to account. It's not just the politicians either. Chaudhry, 63, is also seeking to take Pakistan's intelligence agencies to task for their human-rights abuses.

Still, the Supreme Court faces incredible odds. The venal political class is doing its best to thwart the judiciary. In recent weeks, we have seen Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani  who is accused of contempt of court for refusing to obey its order to write to Swiss authorities and ask them to reopen a corruption case against his ally, President Asif Ali Zardari  flaunting his defiance of the court. Will Chaudhry hold firm and find the Prime Minister guilty of contempt? A nation long deprived of justice now anxiously awaits it.